


Pack and Pups (What's Mine Is Mine)

by ProwlingThunder



Series: could you bite the hand? [1]
Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Crew as Family, Four has a wolf, Four has puppies, Freezerkid lives, Gen, Pack Family, Psychic Wolves, Wanted Criminals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 03:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9697202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: Not us,she insists."So who are we, then?"Four,the wolf decides regally,and his sister Wolf.





	

He did not remember who he was-- and neither did she. But they were connected, and they remembered the stories of wolf-warriors, bound to brothers and sisters in a pack. When they spill out of cryo without anything else, their minds still sing together, matching piece for piece.

She was, Four knew, his wolf-sister. But all else of who they were, or  _ where they were _ , or who was on the ship... that was beyond them.

He was the fourth to wake up, and the fifth is a green-haired teenager there's a sort of bewildered, instant affection for.

_ Puppy,  _ Wolf reminds him, an association she's.. not sure about, when she leans her snout forward to sniff at the girl. Four knows she's young, sixteen, perhaps. Leaning on adulthood. But not yet, Wolf decided, or she wouldn't have been _ puppy. _

After Six (a tall dark-skinned guy, who remembered no more than Four or Wolf or Wolf's newfound puppy Five, or One, Two, or Three) there's  _ Seven. _ He's just a boy, no younger than Five, thin and pale. There was a bandage wrapped around his stomach, and Four notes it the same time Wolf does, but his sister insists there's no smell of blood. Not  _ anymore, _ at least. No new blood.

Also:  _ my puppy too. Mine. _

Four feels a weird surge of affection for Five and Seven. Protectiveness. For a moment it's too close to him to say it's only Wolf influencing him, and the feelings are disconcerting, confusing.

Still, they can't be shaken. Five and Seven are  _ my puppies, _ and so that's that.

\--

Five and Seven aren't on the ship's crew manifest.  _ He _ is, though. Ryo Tetsuda, and his bitch-wolf Yuuka.

Wolf turns her nose up at the concept, at the list of their crimes.  _ Not us, _ she insists. She shoves the sense of  _ puppies! _ up against him, fragile and helpless and in need of protection (and he wonders what sense of this is her own, if she remembers something, if they have pups of their own somewhere, or if this is just a general understanding all wolf-bitches have) and tags Five and Seven's scents onto it.

Everything is tinged with  _ cold, _ from the cryo, but Five smells like burning plastic and wiring and Seven smells like hot metal and antiseptic soap.

Four hasn't quite gotten her to tell him what he smells like, and her own scent-name seems to be missing. He remembers that wolves are supposed to have those.

Nevertheless, he can't refute her. They  _ are _ their puppies. Besides, he's pretty sure Wolf would throw her weight around, and he knows already that she weighs more than he does.

"So who are we, then?"

_ Four,  _ the wolf decides regally,  _ and his sister Wolf. _

It's not that his name doesn't matter any more. It's just that it's deemed somewhat unimportant compared to what he is  _ now. _ Whatever that is.

\--

He is  _ really good _ with a blade, and with his hands. He is a weapon. It's as satisfying as it is alarming.

Five and Seven get along well enough. Wolf entreats them to run their hands through her blue-grey fur, a brush, a comb. She rewards them by washing their faces, flopping into their laps like an over-sized house pet.

Four keeps his hands to himself, but he offers the teenagers a subtly softer side than he offers the other adults on the crew. They were just children, and even if they weren't  _ mine, _ he  _ knows, _ somehow, that they could not defeat him in a battle.

The adults are an unknown.

\--

The mission goes  _ about _ as expected.

There's a lot of blood. A lot of gunfire. A lot of death. He smells a little like mud and fire and grave dirt. Wolf smells only marginally worse by smelling like singed wolf hair plus all of the above.

He supposed they are both lucky she decides  _ against _ naming them after this mission.

Five and Seven are not overly concerned that they return alive, still distressed about not  _ being on the crew log. _

He's lucky they aren't afraid of him, and it's really, really surprising that they aren't.

_ Puppies, _ Wolf reminds him, haughty but fond. She snuggles herself up next to him in the bed, takes up most of the space. Four permits himself to lay his head against her barrel as he attempts to figure out the puzzle box he found in the false back of that locker.

He doesn't  _ remember _ how to do it. Not mentally.

If his fighting prowess is anything to go by, there's a lot more credit for muscle memory surviving cryo.

\--

Somebody opened it. Wolf scents burnt plastic and wiring. It owes to the idea that he and the kids were close.

He decides against thanking Five when Wolf follows the scent back through the room. Apparently Five knows how to  _ sneak in. _

He's not sure how to handle that.

There's a ring inside. He has no idea what it is, and neither does Wolf-- but they both agree that it's important.

It feels odd to wear it, like his finger remembers it but doesn't, exactly.

Wolf makes him put it back into the box.

_ Just until we find out what it is. You're a swordsman anyway, you wouldn't be able to wear it. _

\--

Five apparently remembers  _ pieces.  _ She talks to Wolf fondly, scratching behind her ears, talking about remembering running with her on the beaches. Wolf relays it back to Four, who can't remember beaches at all but knows, nevertheless, that Five must be remembering his life.

He considers asking her and decides against it. That's not his life anymore.

_ Liar, _ Wolf huffs, throwing the memory of the ring against him in rebuttal. Four yields, but not much. He doesn't turn her down when she wants to spend time with them.

"Sometimes... I think I'm a wolf," Five tells him, once. Four just listens, cleaning the blades in the training room. A part of him wishes she didn't just want to hang out with him because it was clear he and Wolf were a matched set, because she had bits of both of them floating around in her subconscious. "Maybe. It's weird.."

"A wolf's mind is not perfectly identical to that of a human," Four almost feels a pang of guilt, admitting it out loud while Wolf is in the room, demanding belly scratches from Seven over against the wall. Wolf can hear them-- Seven can't. "I will teach you how to meditate. That will help."

"...thanks."

\--

When they’re still Tetsuda Ryo and Yuuka, Boone suggests spacing the young woman they have found stowed away on the Raza. It is, he supposes, a valid option-- but they can sense that Boone doesn’t prefer the option, that he is saying it purely for his reputation. He has a soft spot for kids; they can hear it in his tone. They can smell it in his pheromones.

He doesn’t want to kill the girl.

More than that: Ryo and Yuuka can smell blood.

It’s not a woman’s blood, the scent is wrong even if the girl is of that age. That blood is of decay, life ungranted, renewed potential.  _ This _ blood is of death. Contact scents tell him: a boy about her age, weak with fever, determined despite it.

_ Mine, _ Yuuka demands.

“They can earn their place,” he decides, because his vote is the final one required. His vote is the one that  _ matters,  _ though he doubts any of them would refuse him, even if this is not his ship. Yuuka’s mass and his combat prowess speaks volumes. The Raza’s crew cares not for little things like  _ royalty _ or  _ bloodlines, _ but his ability to be useful puts his wishes heads and shoulders above others. He looks at the girl, standing, obeying Yuuka’s orders to  _ move. _ “Where is he?”

The girl blanches, grasps for straws. For lies. “There’s no one else.”

Yuuka snorted. Ryo raised an eyebrow. “He dies while you wait.”

This, now, has Boone’s attention, along with everyone else. But Boone is the important one, because  _ Boone has someone too. _ He zeroes his attention on her like a hunting hound. “You got someone  _ else?” _

She shakes like a leaflet. Ryo would feel bad about it later; for now he can smell her fear, and her desire to desperately ask for help. They have already threatened to space her, after all. She has a right to be afraid.

But not from Ryo, or Yuuka. And not from Boone.

“I-- my brother. He was shot. Can you--”

“Go,” Lin orders at once, and Jones shoves himself to his feet as the girl turns and bolts, pelting right into the hallway. Yuuka is after her like a bullet, thrown into a long-limbed lope. Ryo follows his sister at a more sedated pace, and the others follow him.


End file.
